Actor Park Jae-hyun, known for his role in 'Surprise', has revealed the reasons behind his retirement and divorce from his wife, Han Hye-joo, who is 16 years his junior.
On the October 17th episode of TV Chosun's new variety show 'X's Private Life', Han Hye-joo was seen observing the daily life of her ex-husband, Park Jae-hyun.
Park shared that he first met Han in 2017 when she was 24 and he was 40. He said, "I didn't see her as a woman at first; she seemed like a child to me. I was living in Incheon, and we started a long-distance relationship between Incheon and Daejeon."
After six months of dating, they discovered they were expecting a child and decided to marry in March 2018. Both families approved of their marriage.
Regarding the reason for their divorce, Park stated, "We started fighting shortly after marriage. There seemed to be a generational gap, and I began to notice things that were outside my understanding. We had different ideas about parenting. Even when I shared knowledge from experts, she wouldn't believe it. She preferred to learn everything from the internet and trusted only what she saw."
Park had to retire from acting after marriage. As a reenactment actor on 'Surprise', he said, "I earned less than 400,000 won per episode, and my monthly income was 1.5 million won. I was the highest-paid among the actors."
He added, "I quit acting due to financial issues. I felt I needed to stop acting to support my family. I never tried other jobs while doing 'Surprise' because I didn't want people to think I wasn't earning enough from acting."
Their daughter underwent four heart surgeries. Park revealed, "We found out about her condition, 'transposition of the great arteries', when my wife was five months pregnant." The turning point in their divorce was living with his parents.
Park explained, "My ex-wife liked to sleep in, so I made breakfast alone. My parents stayed with us a week before our daughter's last surgery. She never made breakfast during that time. On the day my parents left, she said, 'I feel uncomfortable with your parents here. I don't want to live with them.' That's when the fighting started, and I packed my bags and said, 'Let's get a divorce.'" Han countered, "He always put his mother first."
Reported by Tae Yuna, Ten Asia youyou@tenasia.co.kr